Beestonian stage

The Beestonian Stage is an early Pleistocene stage in the geological history of the British Isles. It is named after Beeston Cliffs near West Runton in Norfolk where deposits from this stage are preserved.

The Beestonian precedes the Cromerian Stage and follows the Pastonian Stage. This stage consists of alternating glacial and interglacial phases instead of being a continuous glacial epoch. It is equivalent to Marine isotope stages 22 to (60?).^[1][2][3] The Beestonian Stage and Marine Isotope Stage 22 ended about 866,000 years ago.^[4][5]

The Beestonian corresponds temporally to the Danube Stage in the glacial history of the Alpine region. Based on findings in the Low Countries, the corresponding timespan in northern continental Europe is divided into four stages, the Bavelian, Menapian, Waalian, and Eburonian.^[6]

The Beestonian had also been equated to the Nebraskan glaciation in North America. However, the Nebraskan Stage, along with the Kansan and Aftonian Stages, have been abandoned by North American Quaternary geologists and merged into the Pre-Illinoian Stage.^[7][8] As of 2011^[update], the Beestonian stage is correlated with the period of time that includes the Pre-Illinoian F, Pre-Illinoian G, and Pre-Illinoian H glaciations of North America.^[2][8]

Historical names of the "four major" glacials in four regions.

Region	Glacial 1	Glacial 2	Glacial 3	Glacial 4
Alps	Günz	Mindel	Riss	Würm
North Europe	Eburonian	Elsterian	Saalian	Weichselian
British Isles	Beestonian	Anglian	Wolstonian	Devensian
Midwest U.S.	Nebraskan	Kansan	Illinoian	Wisconsinan

Historical names of interglacials.

Region	Interglacial 1	Interglacial 2	Interglacial 3
Alps	Günz-Mindel	Mindel-Riss	Riss-Würm
North Europe	Waalian	Holsteinian	Eemian
British Isles	Cromerian	Hoxnian	Ipswichian
Midwest U.S.	Aftonian	Yarmouthian	Sangamonian

See also

• Ice age
• Glacial period
• Timeline of glaciation

References

1. McMillan, A. A. (2005). "A provisional Quaternary and Neogene lithostratigraphical framework for Great Britain". Netherlands Journal of Geosciences. 84 (2): 87–107. doi:10.1017/S0016774600022988.
2. Walker, M., 2005, Quaternary Dating Methods, John Wiley & Son, Chichester, United Kingdom. ISBN 0-470-86927-5
3. Gibbard, P.L., S. Boreham, K.M. Cohen and A. Moscariello, 2007, Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years v. 2007b Archived 2008-09-10 at the Wayback Machine, jpg version 844 KB. Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England
4. Lisiecki, L.E., 2005, Ages of MIS boundaries. LR04 Benthic Stack Boston University, Boston, MA
5. Lisiecki, L. E.; Raymo, M. E. (2005). "A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic δ¹⁸O records" (PDF). Paleoceanography. 20 (1): PA1003. Bibcode:2005PalOc..20.1003L. doi:10.1029/2004PA001071. hdl:2027.42/149224. S2CID 12788441.
6. Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years, v. 2011
7. Hallberg, G. R. (1986). "Pre-Wisconsin glacial stratigraphy of the central plains region in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri". Quaternary Science Reviews. 5: 11–15. Bibcode:1986QSRv....5...11H. doi:10.1016/0277-3791(86)90169-1.
8. Richmond, G. M.; Fullerton, D. S. (1986). "Summation of quaternary glaciations in the United States of America". Quaternary Science Reviews. 5: 183–196. Bibcode:1986QSRv....5..183R. doi:10.1016/0277-3791(86)90184-8.

Further reading

• Bowen, D.Q., 1978, Quaternary geology: a stratigraphic framework for multidisciplinary work. Pergamon Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. 221 pp. ISBN 978-0-08-020409-3
• Ehlers, J., P. L. Gibbard, and J. Rose, eds., 1991, Glacial deposits in Great Britain and Ireland. Balkema, Rotterdam. 580 pp ISBN 978-90-6191-875-2
• Mangerud, J., J. Ehlers, and P. Gibbard, 2004, Quaternary Glaciations: Extent and Chronology 1: Part I Europe, Elsevier, Amsterdam. ISBN 0-444-51462-7
• Sibrava, V., Bowen, D.Q, and Richmond, G.M., 1986, Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere, Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 5, pp. 1-514.

External links

• Aber, J.S., 2006, Regional Glaciation of Kansas and Nebraska Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas.
• anonymous, 2000, Pre-Wisconsin Glaciation of Central North America, Work Group on Geospatial Analysis of Glaciated Environments (GAGE), INQUA Commission on Glaciation, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas.
• anonymous, 2007, Global correlation tables for the Quaternary, Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England.